{"id":332403,"date":"2026-03-06T17:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/332403\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T17:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:55:07","slug":"britney-spears-arrested-on-suspicion-of-driving-under-the-influence-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/332403\/","title":{"rendered":"Britney Spears arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Singer Britney Spears<\/a> was seen driving \u201cerratically\u201d before her arrest on suspicion of operating her vehicle under the influence, US police have said.<\/p>\n

Officers took the 44-year-old into custody in California<\/a> on Wednesday evening, according to a California Highway Patrol (CHP) spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Police said the singer \u201cshowed signs of impairment and submitted to a series of field sobriety tests\u201d after being pulled over.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt approximately 8.48pm, a black BMW 430i was reported to the CHP\u2019s Ventura Communications Centre for driving erratically at a high rate of speed on southbound US-101 near the Borchard Road exit in Newbury Park,\u201d the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

Spears, who police said was alone in the car, was later arrested for \u201cdriving under the influence of a combination of drugs and alcohol\u201d and taken to Ventura County Main Jail, northwest of Los Angeles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chemical test results are pending and the investigation is continuing, police said. She was released from jail at around 6am local time.<\/p>\n

A representative for the star said: \u201cThis was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable.<\/p>\n

\"BritneyBritney Spears performing in San Jose, California in 2016. Photograph: Tim Mosenfelder\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cBritney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law and hopefully this can be the first step in long-overdue change that needs to occur in Britney\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, she can get the help and support she needs during this difficult time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer boys are going to be spending time with her. Her loved ones are going to come up with an overdue needed plan to set her up for success for wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2007, Spears avoided a criminal hit-and-run trial by paying for damages after photographers captured her steering her car into another vehicle as she tried to park in a California car park, and walking away after assessing the damage to her own car.<\/p>\n

Her recent arrest comes after Spears sold part of her rights to her back catalogue in February to music publisher Primary Wave for an unknown fee<\/p>\n

The purchase came after Spears\u2019s 13-year conservatorship, set up in 2008, which had control of her career decisions and finances, ended in 2021.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Spears released a collaboration with Elton John<\/a> in 2022, and later collaborated with Black Eyed Peas member Will.i.am on a track titled Mind Your Business in 2023.<\/p>\n

Spears\u2019s career has seen her achieve six UK number one singles and eight UK top 10 albums.<\/p>\n

She has also collaborated with stars such as Madonna<\/a>, Rihanna<\/a>, Iggy Azalea and Backstreet Boys.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the singer said she would \u201cnever return to the music industry\u201d and shut down speculation that a new album was on the way in a post on Instagram<\/a>. – AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singer Britney Spears was seen driving \u201cerratically\u201d before her arrest on suspicion of operating her vehicle under the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[667,811,16915,93,61,542,60,664,31272],"class_list":{"0":"post-332403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-britney-spears","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-elton-john","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-instagram","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-madonna","16":"tag-rihanna"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}